UNHCR: facing the refugee challenge.

By now, the images have become familiar to all of us: the race across a barbed-wire border on a moonless night; a boat, overcrowded with desperate people, preyed upon by modern-day pirates; cars, piled high with furniture, stuck at an entry point; an overnight city of white tents set against the mountains. There is no corner of the earth where the classic drama of the refugee has not unfolded.

If anything, we are seeing today an unprecedented number of the world's citizens who have been made refugees as a result of civil conflicts, environmental disasters and, increasingly, hunger and poverty. Recently, the end of the cold war has brought Eastern Europeans streaming West, while the Gulf war has displaced hundreds of thousands and left others homeless, their cities destroyed.

For all of these cases, the costs are rising too. Money is needed to feed, clothe and heal those who are often hungry, cold, malnourished and sick-the victims of intense trauma. There is also the growing cost, measured in negative terms, of loss to the country of origin of productive citizens who leave.

Many nations have become hostile to accepting more refugees, as they are already overburdened and unable to adequately care for their own citizens. Racism and xenophobia are on the rise. There is no welcome mat for poor, unskilled refugees. Western Europe hopes to establish a unified border policy by 1992, to cope with-some would say keep out-the influx of refugees from less-developed nations. in many places, the status of refugees remains questionable, with forced repatriation seemingly replacing voluntary repatriation as the dominant policy.

Following the war in the Persian Gulf area, a new population of "orbit cases"-in this case, twice displaced Palestinian refugees-has been created, posing unique economic and political problems for resettlement officials.

As the scope of the world's refugee problem grows daily, so does the need for increased cooperation among nations to stem, and hopefully reverse, the current global tide of exodus and exile.

This is the key challenge facing the Office of the UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) as it celebrates its fortieth anniversary in 1991. A new High Commissioner, Mrs. Sadako Ogata of Japan, assumed that post in February.

"The problem of refugees has grown not only in size but in complexity, to the point where it truly is a global problem-all nations are affected", said Albert Peters, head of UNHCR's New York Office, in a recent interview.

"More and more, we are moving towards a situation where we have to reckon with the causes that make people become refugees in order to find the ways they can be solved." He added: "Refugee issues are part and parcel of the political world, which is why they must become part of an international political agenda. It is our task to help develop and implement such an agenda."

The tide of history

Since its creation on 1 January 1951, UNHCR has grown from a small agency helping the refugees of two world wars to become the leading international body, working on behalf of the world's refugees. Today, there are an estimated 17 million refugees, and another 15 million to 25 million displaced persons, most of them women and children (see page 51). UNHCR's achievements have gained worldwide recognition, as well as two wi Nobel peace prizes-in 1954 and 1981. But more importantly, it has literally saved millions of lives by bringing together donors and their resources to those in need on a scale unimagined by its post-war architects.

Today, UNHCR offices and missions have grown to match the increase in world refugees. There is currently a staff of about 2,000, as compared to 99 in 1951. They work at UNHCR headquarters in Geneva and in 100 field offices around the world. The annual budget has increased to nearly $600 million, financed primarily by voluntary contributions from Governments, with private organizations and individuals also contributing. Still, that falls short of what is needed to meet today's needs.

The severe budget crisis of UNHCR has recently been the focus of discussion among the 44 member States of EXCOM, the agency's Executive Committee. In 1989, despite funding pleas to Governments and voluntary agencies, UNHCR had a $35 million shortfall in its general programmes budget of $386.15 million. After a short-lived budget surplus in 1990, UNHCR money needs have skyrocketed this year, in light of the Gulf war and the continuing crisis in the Horn of Africa.

At present, the agency has enough funds to cover 80 per cent of its core programmes, but as High Commissioner Ogata said recently: "Many UNHCR programmes, especially those in Africa, have already been cut to the bone." UNHCR's funding problem, she concluded, "will not go away, and it is a question that will have to be given much more thought".

Non-governmental organizations (NGOs) are also feeling the effects of "donor fatigue". The problem, the International Council of Voluntary Agencies (ICVA) stated last year, was that "Governments have not provided adequate funding to the organization [UNHCR] to allow it to fulfil its fundamental mandate. There is no substitute for government funding".

A humanitarian approach

UNHCR is the offspring of a League of Nations project that began in 1921, when some 1.5 million Russians were stranded in the aftermath of the First World War. Norwegian explorer Fridtjof Nansen took charge of the refugee effort, coordinating the activities of various voluntary agencies. He later expanded the mission to cover other Eastern European refugee groups, including Armenians, Turks and Assyrians. An innovative director, Mr. Nansen drew up a document called the "Nansen passport", which was signed by 54 countries and gave legal identity to these war refugees.

The Nansen office gave way to the UN Relief and Rehabilitation Administration, created after the Second World War to help repatriate some 7 million persons. When the process resulted in death for many of the 2 million returned to Stalin's labour camps in the Soviet Union, a new solution was demanded by the world community.

The International Refugee Organization was then created in 1947 to resettle, rather than repatriate, the victims of war. This plan ultimately failed though, since countries of asylum also suffering from the consequences of war became unwilling to care for additional refugees.

In 1951, when UNHCR was born, 174,000 persons were living as "long stayers" in refugee camps that were becoming permanent, not temporary, shelters. The majority were orphaned children and the elderly. They were sick, weak and completely dependent on assistance. A better solution was demanded by the world community, one that all could agree upon and that would provide international protection to refugees. This then was the postwar demand that has remained at the heart of UNHCR policy ever since.

The primary mission of UNHCR was to protect and assist refugees. While existing as well as future refugees were included under its mandate, its initial focus was on refugees remaining from the Second World War. Two key UN documents were at the core of the Agency's mandate.

The hallmark 1948 UN Universal Declaration of Human Rights established that everyone has the "right to leave one's country and seek and enjoy asylum" (from persecution).

The 1951 Convention relating to the Status of Refugees and its 1967 Protocol set minimum protection standards for refugees. A refugee, the Convention reads, is a person who, "owing to well-founded fear of persecution for reasons of race, religion, nationality, membership of a particular social group or political opinion, is outside of the country of his nationality and is unable or, owing to such fear, is unwilling to avail himself of the protection of that country . . ."

Although important to the protection of refugees, the Universal Declaration stops short of proclaiming the individual's right to enter another country and be granted asylum; it only refers to the right to leave one's country and enjoy asylum. Thus, Governments reluctant to take in refugees have used the wording of the Declaration to argue that they are not mandated to grant asylum.

The 1951 Convention has a similar ambiguity which has been the subject of intense debate. The Convention leaves the concept of persecution"the basis for granting asylum-vague. It also upholds the right of Governments to determine who qualifies as a refugee.

Compared to the 27 million people uprooted by the Second World War, today's refugees often fall outside the strict categories of "persecution". If people cannot earn a living because their country is wracked by civil war, are they victims of political persecution? If a natural disaster strikes and area residents flee across a border to safety, do they qualify for the "right of asylum"?

UNHCR's Albert Peters puts it more bluntly: "What one has to fight is some kind of national egoism by nations and Governments who say 'we're interested in helping these people and not those'. What is needed to counter such attitudes", he added, "is a spirit of multiculturalism and unity of purpose".

Unity lacking

Up to now, that unity has been lacking. A 1989 UNHCR study on European asylum practices by Governments noted: "The interpretation of the criteria for granting refugee status and asylum displays almost as many variations as there are countries. In some countries, persecution has been defined ... as a threat to life or freedom, but not in all countries,"

Part of the problem lies in history. A February 1991 overview of UNHCR achievements by the New York-based Lawyers Committee for Human Rights concluded that because the Office was created in the cold-war period, it was immediately cast into a political, not strictly humanitarian, role.

As stated by Richard Smyser, a former UNHCR Deputy High Commissioner: "The Western Governments saw that the harshly ideological States that had assumed power in Central and Eastern Europe during the twentieth century represented danger, not protection, for certain of their citizens. The West wished to make it possible for those unprotected citizens to leave their countries if they could."

As a result, Mr. Smyser concluded, Eastern European nations were wary of UNHCR activities, seeing the agency as a tool of Western capitalism, rather than a humanitarian body.

The historic advent of Soviet "perestroika" and the opening of the East have since dramatically altered the picture, because many Of those seeking entry into the West are perceived to be outside the Convention's definition of' a refugee. Additionally, the issue of displacement has surfaced due to ethnic civil strife in several countries.

"There are people who are victims of political persecution, but there are also those who fall into the category of victims of economic and environmental disasters", said Mr. Peters. "But the point is that these people have been forced to leave their homes and are in need of assistance and protection."

The same holds true in ravaged Kuwait, where some 400,000 Palestinians lived and worked prior to the Gulf war. These Palestinians fall outside the mandate of another agency, the UN Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA).

On 4 March, UNRWA reported that some 150,000 Palestinians working in Kuwait had fled to Jordan. High Commissioner Ogata said recently: "As a result of events during the war, we have seen a hardening of attitudes against the Palestinians in some quarters." She termed the situation very worrying", stating it was especially so for UNHCR, which might be asked to extend its mandate of protection, when it could not financially afford to do so.

A mandate to protect

A key aspect that sets UNHCR apart from other UN or humanitarian agencies is its mandate to provide international protection for refugees. This and the goal of "durable solutions" to their problems arc the two main functions of the agency at present.

In 1967, the 1951 Convention Relating to the Status of Refugees was supplemented by the UN Refugee Protocol. This document eliminated the time and geographic limitations contained in the 1951 Convention. In other words, the mention of' refugees being the result of events occurring [in Europe] before 1 January 1951" was deleted, thus enlarging the scope of the definition.

UNHCR works to assure that host nations respect international standards for the treatment of refugees in the fields of education, employment, residency, freedom of movement and protection against forced repatriation to their country of origin. To date, 107 nations have agreed to abide by the Convention and its Protocol.

On the legal front, UNHCR officials provide refugees with access to lawyers and social workers, as well as to legal instruments to help them with their asylum claims. The agency also plays the role of a go-between, assisting countries of asylum with refugee cases, as well as countries to which refugees are voluntarily returning. UNHCR field workers interview refugees seeking entry into a host country once they are in camps and, afterwards, when refugees are either resettled or repatriated.

The agency works closely with other UN bodies, such as the Food and Agriculture Organization of the UN, the World Health Organization, the World Food Programme, the UN Development Programme, and the UN Disaster Relief Coordinator, whose programmes provide both emergency relief aid and longer-term development projects to aid refugees.

UNHCR also works with the Geneva-based ICVA and a network of more than 200 NGOs which provide material and field support to refugees.

As the coordinator for international refugee assistance, UNHCR provides basic material assistance in the form of emergency relief, food and medical care, and shelter. Its programmes strive to give refugees jobs and training, education and social services.

Considering that many refugees are victims of trauma and civil conflicts or war, special psychological counselling is often needed, as well as rehabilitation, for those who are disabled. These forms of assistance are geared toward promoting self-sufficiency, rather than the long-term dependency created in Second World War refugee camps.

The goal of self-sufficiency

"The problem of a camp, we have learned, is that people become victims of assistance and cannot have a normal life there", stated Santiago Romero-Perez, UNHCR Deputy Representative in New York. "That's a continuation of the social missionary approach that sees people as objects of assistance, rather than agents of selfdetermination. That is why the goal of self-sufficiency is so important, and why we are now seeking to integrate refugee issues with those of national development."

As Mr. Romero-Perez explained: "The longer the period of instability resulting from extended periods in camps, the more difficult it is for refugees" to either integrate into their host countries or return home-if home still exists. Hence, in situations of drawn-out or chronic conflicts, where voluntary repatriation is impossible, it is preferable to try to integrate refugees locally and avoid creating dependent victims of assistance".

Such a goal is hardly easy, however, given the increasing numbers of refugees. While Western European nations and the United States have steadily expanded their immigration quotas for refugees, political developments have outstripped this pace. Recent pressing refugee problems include the plight of the Kurds and Palestinians, the Tamil problem and chronic migrations in the Horn of Africa, Sudan and Ethiopia.

In the early 1970s, for example, some 13,000 asylum seekers entered Western Europe, many of them from the East. The majority was recognized as refugees. This year, some 450,000 people are expected to apply for asylum in Western Europe, an astonishing increase.

"Fifty per cent of these people come from the Third World, and less than 20 per cent are going to be recognized as refugees", said Michel Moussalli, UNHCR Director of International Protection, referring to the exodus from nations south and east to those north and west.

While many of these new refugees cannot claim asylum based on "persecution" as defined by the 1951 Convention, they are still fleeing. Mr. Moussalli declared recently: "If the international community is confronted with a flow of destitute persons, massive economic, social and development aid should be made available to enable the country of origin to offer satisfactory living conditions to its citizens."

Mr. Moussalli added that, as it stands today, "the immigration doors are closed in most countries to economic migrants. Thus, they clog up the asylum procedures which cannot function normally any longer." Such a back-up may aid some refugees who are able to stay in the relatively safe limbo of a pending asylum claim for up to two years. But the longer-term costs are high for all concerned,

While the official doors have closed, "unofficial ones remain open, and contribute to a new form of exploitation of foreign labour", he explained. "Many persons have been used below the standards without any protection." In Western Europe, that exploitation has also been accompanied by xenophobia and racial attacks on new migrants by citizens.

In January 1991, the first colloquium on European Community (EC) refugee policy was held in Brussels with the goal of outlining how the 12 European States can work together to address the refugee crisis. The question at stake, said EC Parliament President Enrique Baron Crespo in an opening address, is: "Will the EC become a fortress or a region of' asylum?"

For the moment, some hope lies in the very region that has for so long produced refugees-Eastern Europe. UNHCR officials are now conducting training courses for immigration officials there.

"There are countries of asylum that have made it clear they've reached their limit", said Mr. Peters. "Since there is no way we can coerce them, we have to look at the national interests [of developing countries]." As he explained: "What we ought to do is give the developing countries a chance and the means to develop their own resources so as to limit unnecessary departures to a minimum."

A durable solution

Last year, Deputy High Commissioner Douglas Stafford told the UNHCR Executive Committee: "Our limited resources mean we have missed chances to implement voluntary repatriation programmes." His remarks addressed the critical juncture at which UNHCR now finds itself In the past, the goal of resettlement was pushed. But now, with the lines blurred between political and economic refugees and the closure of borders, more emphasis is given to voluntary repatriation.

"What we strive for is a real solution-a durable solution", explained Mr. Romero-Perez. "While the goal is to help the refugees settle, the first issue is one of safety-the international protection-of the refugees." He added: "That is often a difficult thing to gauge. We at UNHCR support the return of refugees if their safety can be assured by their country of origin, but that's not always the case. Ultimately, it should be a decision made by the refugees themselves."

Even when it is safe, the root economic conditions that caused migration and internal displacement remain. That is the new area where UNHCR is working closely with development agencies.

"Assistance must be given to the developing countries to build up their resources so that people won't be forced to leave", said Mr. Peters, who stressed that the traditional countries of asylum "must commit themselves to this goal which ultimately will benefit them in terms of fewer refugees".

Toward that end, UNHCR and UNDP have initiated several joint programmes aimed at self-sustaining development and improved living conditions. These include the Programme for Displaced Persons, Refugees and Returnees in Central America (PRODERE), which was launched in 1990 to aid some 440,000 beneficiaries, with full financing by the Italian Government.

PRODERE is one of 59 joint UNDP/UNHCR projects that are part of the Plan of Action, adopted at the Un-sponsored International Conference on Central American Refugees (CIREFCA), held in Guatemala City in May 1988. A total of $156.2 million has been pledged to the CIREFCA Plan. "UNDP becomes involved because displacement of any significance poses serious threats to development", said UNDP Administrator William Draper regarding the emergent UNDP/UNHCR policy.

"UNHCR is not a development agency, but we should act as an advocate of development assistance", said Mrs. Ogata. "If you want to prevent new refugee situations, then development is indispensable."

What does the future hold for UNHCR and the refugee populations it seeks to serve? "The situation today is very serious", said Mr. Peters. "What is needed now is political will and a real commitment on the part of nations that have yet to follow through in terms of resources and money. Without that, we're headed for disasters of unparalled proportions. We at UNHCR are doing all that we can. But the refugee problem belongs to the whole world."